


Hungry Like the Wolf

by bryar6



Series: A Wizard's Beginnings [10]
Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: 1980s, Action/Adventure, Gen, I go hog wild and Zoe shamelessly uses 80s slang left and right, Inspired by Art, Magical Creature, Monster hunts, they are reckless idiots and I love them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28563513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bryar6/pseuds/bryar6
Summary: Zoe's finally fixed up her first motorcycle and convinced Douxie to give it a try, and what a better way to get some miles in than with a monster hunt? 80's slang and considerably reckless adventuring abounds in this oneshot, no prior reading necessary.
Relationships: Archie & Hisirdoux "Douxie" Casperan & Zoe, Hisirdoux "Douxie" Casperan & Zoe
Series: A Wizard's Beginnings [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1941658
Comments: 14
Kudos: 15





	Hungry Like the Wolf

**Author's Note:**

> The idea sprung from [this](https://tenyai.tumblr.com/image/639368802102050817) art by the lovely Teny and I just had to write it. 
> 
> Title stolen right, and shamelessly, from the popular 80's song (and it's rather fitting...). Also left at pretty platonic Zouxie and thus can be enjoyed either way.

“You coming out from under that thing today or should I just head out with Arch on my own? Poor, scrawny me as the next meal for a hungry monster. It’s one way to go, at least.” 

Zoe grunts. A mop of tangled pink hair can be seen shifting through the motorcycle’s sleek chrome parts as she scoots out from under it. 

“Yeah, yeah. It’s just about done, I’m tweaking a few things here and there. C’mon, don’t you want to ride it?” 

Douxie offers a hand to her, but she pushes it away and picks herself up, teetering slightly. Her face is dotted with smears of various oils and dirt and the shirt she brushes her hands on is one of Douxie’s old, more beaten ones, knotted at the hip to make it shorter and the splotches of paint almost give her a look akin to current fashion styles. Her skirt is faded but impossibly clean for what she’s been doing and she tugs a rag from her belt and tosses it to the side. She wipes a hand across her brow and gives a satisfied grin before her eyes flick back to the motorcycle and stay there. It’s nothing huge and the parts don’t all match, but the original pink body is still there and it’s clear that Zoe loves it. 

“If I’m honest, that thing sounds terrifying, for one,” he says, eyeing it uneasily. “And two—”

“Needs a new muffler, old one is junk,” she interrupts, brushing past him and to her toolbag spread across a couple overturned trash cans. “But it doesn’t matter right now, runs great without. Trust me, she’s good as the day she was bought, just a decade older.” 

“Still think it’s unnecessarily powerful and loud,” he mutters, shaking his head. He doesn’t add ‘dangerous’ because as far as danger goes, a motorcycle probably doesn’t increase their day-to-day risk factor. “I was _going_ to say that it’s probably better we stay in the area.” 

“Doux, we’ve been hunting this whatever it is for weeks now, it’s not like you to just give up on it. I think tonight’s the night to get the bugger and be done with it.” She doesn’t turn as she puts things away in the many pockets of the bag, foot tapping a little to some unheard beat. 

“I know, I know. S’just…” He trails off, eyes drifting to the corner of the alley where Archie has just hopped down from the fire escape to join them. “I want to get this thing, I just think the motorcycle bit is overkill.” 

“Have a little fun, would you? Besides,” she says, swinging a leg over the seat, “Not everything is about work all the time. A joyride won’t kill you.” She sits and tugs on a pair of fingerless gloves, shifting her weight and inserting the key.

He sticks his tongue out at her and glances to Archie, who only smiles as cats do, and huffs in defeat. “Fine. But please obey the traffic laws, will you?” 

Zoe smirks. “No guarantees. We’ll head for the coast where my coworkers saw it last, sound good? We gotta motor if we want to get there before dark.” 

“Fine, I guess.” He awkwardly slips behind her, caught between not wanting to make her uncomfortable and also feeling a little terrified he’ll fly off if he has nothing to hold onto, despite the fact she hasn’t even started it up. Archie leaps into the sky and a raven soars off in his place, letting out a soft cry that Douxie takes to mean that he’ll meet them there. 

She starts the engine and it immediately rumbles beneath them, turning over surprisingly smoothly. _A good sign, then._ She kicks the stand with a foot and gently pulls them out of the alley and onto the road. At the first press of speed, Douxie lurches forward and grabs her, heart leaping into his throat. 

“Jeez, watch the ribs, would you?” she says over the sound of the motor, shifting a bit. She eyes him warily in the mirror. “Don’t have a cow, I’ll drive the speed limit, just for you. Hold on _gently_.” 

“I’m trying,” he answers, loosening his grip and doing his best not to come off like he’s as worried as he is. He is positive he’s long since failed that. 

Zoe is smooth on the gas for a while, moving at a leisurely speed compared to what she usually goes. Douxie tries not to let it give him a false sense of security, but he has to say he’s far less scared of the bike than he’d previously been, to the point of almost allowing himself to enjoy it. With Zoe’s comforting closeness and her clear relaxation, it’s next to impossible _not_ to. It’s been far too long since he’s had a moment like this and he knows to not let them slip. 

The trees open up and the seacoast becomes visible below the long, rocky cliffs leading down to the water. He lets the sound of the motorcycle on the road put him at ease and just watches as they ride, a strange sort of peace settling. The ocean sparkles in the last light of the day and sets the world ablaze with warm orangey light. Archie circles high above, wings beating every so often to keep up with them. 

“...Hello, McFly? You still back there?” Zoe asks with a scoff. “Hear anything I said?”

“What?” Douxie blinks, bringing himself back to attention. He’s suddenly very aware of his chin against her head and he draws back, a small bit worried he’s encroaching boundaries. Then again, he’d have probably received a solid blow to the ribs if he was. Either way, he remains ever the gentleman.

“I’m not picking up any signs that creature has been through here, I asked if you think we should head back?” 

He reluctantly pulls himself from his thoughts to mull this over. “Ah, I suppose so.” His eyes linger on the sea a bit longer and she notices with a _tsk_. 

“Aw, you’re enjoying a little sightseeing. We can come back, y’know,” she points out, powering through a corner and forcing him to lean closer again. 

“Yeah, yeah.” He catches the last glimpses of it through the trees, fondly reminded of Camelot hanging over the sea. “Maybe I’d take you up on that.” She makes a light sound of agreement but says nothing more.

They’re only a few miles from Arcadia’s outskirts when they hear the howl. It’s piercing and splits the twilight’s tranquility and immediately sets his nerves abuzz. Zoe pulls the bike off the road and cuts the engine to pause and listen. Archie joins them, a low hiss coming through his teeth as he sets down. 

“Sounds like a barghest,” the familiar says as the call sounds again. “Hate those things.” 

“More so than the usual monster?” Douxie asks, feeling all the more unsettled. 

“They’re like overgrown, feral wolf-goblin things. Course he doesn’t like them,” Zoe retorts, seeming just as put-off as Douxie. The small group cautiously move into the woods and leave the bike at the edge of the road, quietly and carefully picking their way through the undergrowth. 

_SNAP!_

Douxie jumps and swings around, holding the glowing orb in his palm and intensifying the brightness. He peers into the empty space, heart hiccuping in his chest. Zoe groans in frustration. 

“Quit wigging out, it’s not some ghost, how many creatures like this have we fought before?” Zoe grabs his arm before he can answer and pulls him forward, continuing further into the grove. The darkness grows and soon both mages hold their light spells ahead of them, blue and pink cutting through the forest, but not a single shadow is out of place. 

It’s eerily quiet as they walk, Archie stalking beside them with his eyes gleaming in the light. It’s a gentle and warm night despite this, making the tense atmosphere feel so out of place. _Why can’t we ever have a relaxing night? Where the monster just leaves us alone?_

There is a low, guttural growl from somewhere close behind the trio. Douxie’s eyes flick over to meet Zoe’s and he swallows hard, willing himself not to run or move suddenly. Zoe’s hand rises up against her stomach, fingers ticking off _three, two, one_. They both spin on their heels, and there, rising up above them on two powerful hind legs, is a wolfish creature with a bony face, large waxy ears, and long, dripping fangs protruding over it’s top lip. 

“Run.” 

Douxie sets off a spell akin to a flashbang into its snout and they bolt, weaving back through the trees and crashing through the brush. 

“We need to get back to the bike!” Archie says, bounding over rocks and downed branches. A paw catches on a root and Douxie tugs him free with a pant of effort. 

“I can’t summon the damned thing, we just have to run!” Zoe spits, casting a glare at the familiar that Douxie is sure is reciprocated. It feels like seconds before they’re at the road again, Zoe hurrying to shove back the stuck kickstand. "I knew it needed more WD-40."

She yanks Douxie to the bike, nails digging into his wrist a little hard. He jumps on behind her, scanning his bracer for spells. 

“Aren’t these things, like, immune to everything?” Douxie shouts. Archie swoops low overhead, back to the favored dragon form. 

“They are not impervious to magical weapons!” the familiar instructs, adopting that favored scholarly tone. Douxie refrains from an eye-roll. 

“You wouldn’t happen to have, say, Excalibur on your person?” Douxie asks with a worried chuckle. “Not that I want to get anywhere near that thing.” 

Zoe glances over her shoulder, annoyance turning quickly to adrenaline-fueled panic as her eyes scan past him and to the howling creature hard on their trail. 

“Shit!” Zoe guns the bike and they skid across loose gravel for a moment, rocks spitting into the air before the tires can catch. The barghest chases along the tarmac, gaining quickly. 

“We can’t lead it back to the town!” Douxie says, sending a bolt of energy glancing off it’s hide. It doesn't even flinch. 

“I know! Hold on!” She jerks hard on the motorcycle and sends them over the shoulder of the road and flying into the forest, tree limbs slapping across their arms. Douxie bites his tongue to keep from crying out, while Zoe lets out a holler that's drowned by the motor, ever more the adrenaline junkie. 

The beast chases after, seemingly unbothered by Archie’s aerial attacks or fire, though not impervious, seeing as how it’s mane catches...or maybe it lit itself on fire? _Gods, I really need to catch up on my monsterology._

Zoe revs the engine and fishtails away from it’s reaching claws and Douxie scrambles for a solution, clinging tightly to her. This thing was surely going to outrun them in these woods, and no matter how diligently she drives, they’re bound to run across some unseen ditch or rock and that’ll be the end. 

He looks ahead, to where the trees drop away at the edge of a ravine, and it’s like a match of reckless ideas has been struck. He grins, probably a bit like a maniac, but hey, genius strikes when it strikes. 

“JUMP!” 

“What?!” Zoe’s head whips around and the look on her face can only be described as incredulous. It smacks of _please tell me I misheard._

“Just jump! I’ve got this!” Douxie cranes around, throwing a blast of fire at the beast. It snarls and pushes faster, gaining on them again. 

“That’s a cliff!” She doesn’t need to say it, but they’re closing in on the edge dangerously fast and in a few moments there will be no other option. 

“I know! Do you trust me?” he calls over the sound of breaking trees. Her hair whips around her face and she ducks lower to the bike. 

“Mostly?” She swerves hard around a rock and Douxie clutches tighter to her shoulders for a moment. She laughs nervously, whether about her sketchy driving or over trusting Douxie, he can’t discern. 

“Then do it! As fast as this thing goes!” He’s shouting now, between the noises of the barghest behind them and the increased straining of the bike. 

“As if! It’ll kill us!” But she stays hard to the course, the cliff only a dozen seconds away.

“Just do it! I know you want to anyway!” 

He sees a smile curl on her lips and takes that as a yes. Douxie breathes in deeply and sweeps an arm, forming a protective rune in the air, stronger than a shield, and only meant to deflect a single attack. He just hopes it’ll be enough should it come to it, and that the spell he’s prepared to draw up immediately afterwards will be quick. 

The barghest howls, tearing closer with each step. Douxie steadies an arm and takes aim for the left side of its chest— hopefully that’s where the heart is located on these things, he doesn’t know —and executes a different spell. 

“Contritione pervalida et gladio!” The magic contorts into a shard of bluish crystal that shimmers with runes in his hand. He takes it gently in his grasp, aims, and sends the spike hurtling towards the beast with a grunt of effort. The motorcycle takes to the air as he releases and it’s a painful few seconds as the barghest lunges from the cliff and towards them, hanging in the air. 

"Oh, _fuzzbuckets_..."

Douxie can only watch in paralyzed fear as the barghest’s claws graze the rear of the bike, charging up his next spell preventing him from striking again. At the last possible second, Archie drops out of the sky and slams into it, transformed into a massive bear. It’s enough to knock the beast aside and give Douxie a clear view of the shard doing its work and the blaze in it’s eyes snuffing out before the creature disappears into the inky night. Archie is back to his cat shape in a flash of yellow light— and it’s then that Douxie realizes they’re all still in free-fall. 

He swings around and levels his arm over Zoe’s shoulder, creating a domed, blue spell below them. The bike collides with it and throws them from the seat and into the hold of the spell. 

“Douxie!” Zoe shouts, curling into herself to protect against the still-roaring bike falling on top of her. She throws a hand out and the key shoots to her palm, the engine droning to a stop. 

“I’m sorry!” he yelps, as they fall again as the spell runs out and slam into a second catch. He’s not quick enough with the third, and they drop unceremoniously into the pond below. 

It’s shallow and stony on the bottom, but Douxie is still quick to pull his head from the water and sit up, coughing out what little water he’d inhaled. Zoe, beside him, breaks the surface and shakes her head, flinging water and mud over him. 

“That was _gnarly_ ,” he says with a sigh of relief, brushing away dirt that had gathered on his cheek. Zoe is still quiet, though maybe she’s stewing on her thoughts for a moment. He leans forward and plucks a leaf from her hair and she swats him, eyes rolling. 

“It was downright idiotic!” hisses Archie. He feels claws sink into his shirt and skin, wincing as soaked fur brushes his arms as the familiar clambers up his back. “You’re just lucky I was there.” 

“Hey, we made it, right?” Douxie makes no move to rescue the mop that is his familiar, but leans a little forward to make it easier for him to hang on. 

Zoe flicks water off a hand and glowers. “We are alive. But my poor bike probably needs a month more of work. Thanks for that.” Her eyes move to the bike, surprisingly intact, up on the riverbank. "Never thought I'd ever do anything like that."

“Oh, c’mon, _you_ were the one who wanted to take it for a joyride, after all. You had fun, didn’t you?” He grins as her eyebrows raise, so wide his cheeks tug. “Say it, Zo. I know you want to.” 

She leans forward and points a finger at him, clearly struggling to keep a scowl on her face. “It wasn’t my idea to fly off a cliff. And I am not letting you have that satisfaction, Casperan. Wipe that smug look off your face this instant.” But it’s clear from the way her lips betray her that she’s not totally serious and bemusement plays in her eyes.

She makes no move to get up out of the water, perching there for a moment shaking her head slightly. He wonders if she’s thinking along the same lines as himself; their lives are full of risks and excitement that most people couldn’t dream of, and he lives for every second of it. His grin sinks in harder and for a moment he forgets that they’re sitting in a pond in the middle of the night, and it’s just another day in their chaotic lives, a moment he will manage to cherish no matter how they'd stumbled into it. 

Archie lets out a very irritated yowl and breaks the comfortable pause. “Enough banter, I’m _soaked_! My fur will never be dry again.”

Zoe breaks first into gentle, tired laughter and Douxie follows suit. When he offers a hand to her, it's grasped and she stands with him. She pries the stiff cat from his shoulders and tucks him under an arm, shushing the familiar’s grumbling and complaining. They pause to wring some of the pond from their clothes before moving to pick the bike up again, Archie muttering all the while. Douxie takes the motorcycle's other side and together they roll it from the woods, the night not over quite yet even if the worst had come to pass. It’s quiet again and much more peacefully so. The stars are bright overhead and the woods are still, the mortal plane one barghest safer than it was a few hours before.

Zoe hauls the bike onto the road and checks it for damage. Satisfied, she seats herself and allows Archie to settle into the space in front of her. Archie casts Douxie a woeful glare, wet fur making him doubly hard to take seriously. Zoe stretches and cracks her knuckles. “C’mon. Let’s get back, I’ve got that junky computer to work on.” 

“Ugh, that old thing? It’ll be obsolete before you can even make it turn on, and I swear it’s given me more static shocks than anything I’ve come into contact with in my life, and that includes you.” She lands a playful punch on his shoulder at his comment. He scoffs, acting at offended, though smiling through it all the same. 

“At least I could afford the thing. Who knows what technology will look like in the future? Imagine, some complex device capable of anything in your wildest dreams, and everyone has one, you could bring it anywhere. I think it’s what’s coming.” 

“Uh huh. In the meantime, I’ll make sure you don’t starve grinding away over your projects.” 

“Shut it, Casperan.” 

“Course, m’lady.”


End file.
